Opportunities in motion: essays on individuation, actualization and reorientation

Guide(s)

Jha, Srivardhini K

Department

Entrepreneurship

Area

Entrepreneurship

University

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Place

Bangalore

Publication Date

3-31-2026

Year Awarded

March 2026

Year Completed

March 2026

Year Registered

June 2021

Abstract

This dissertation examines how entrepreneurs engage opportunities over time through evolving cycles of interpretation and action. It asks how entrepreneurs come to care about certain problems, how they transform imagined futures into viable opportunity pathways, and how they reshape those pathways when short lived opportunity windows arise. Together, the three essays unpack the micro mechanisms through which entrepreneurs notice and commit to particular opportunities, construct and refine those opportunities into actionable forms, and subsequently reorient them in response to shifts in the external environment. The research draws on qualitative data from Indian deep-tech ventures, a setting characterized by long development cycles, technical uncertainty and institutional fluidity, in which interpretive and action dynamics are particularly consequential. The first essay examines the earliest phase of opportunity engagement: how emotionally resonant experiences shape opportunity individuation. While emotion is known to influence entrepreneurial behaviour, prior research has not adequately explained how emotions direct attention and anchor commitment before venturing begins. Through a comparative process study of deep-tech founders who encountered emotionally salient triggering events, the essay reveals two asynchronous yet interdependent tracks: an emotional track through which resonance evolves into conviction, and an action track through which tentative exploration produces credibility signals and commitment. These tracks interleave over time, gradually strengthening each other until a problem becomes personally meaningful and worth committing to. The essay contributes to the opportunity literature by theorizing emotion as a micro foundation of opportunity individuation rather than treating it as a by-product of entrepreneurial intent. The second essay investigates how entrepreneurs actualize opportunities, focusing on the role of imagination in structuring entrepreneurial work under uncertainty. Although imagination has been acknowledged as central to entrepreneurship, existing work has not yet clarified how different forms of imagination arise or how they shape opportunity development. Through a comparative process study of eight deep-tech ventures, the essay identifies two distinct imaginative orientations shaped by entry conditions: exploratory imagination among founders who confront broad possibility spaces and constrained imagination among founders who enter narrow problem spaces with clear technical boundaries. The analysis shows that imagination operates as a continuing practice that organizes entrepreneurial work through three recursive loops: possibility emergence, problem structuring, and solution refinement. Each loop narrows the space of plausible trajectories while increasing clarity and feasibility. The essay contributes to opportunity actualization theory by highlighting how imagination functions both as the window through which entrepreneurs perceive possibilities, and as the means through which those possibilities are developed. The third essay explores a later phase of opportunity engagement: how young ventures rapidly and expansively reorient during short-lived opportunity windows. Broad reorientation is typically associated with mature firms equipped with dynamic capabilities built through organizational history, accumulated learning, and routinized coordination. Yet, some young startups reoriented quickly and extensively during COVID 19 window, despite immature capabilities and thin resource bases. Through a single-case process study of a biotechnology venture responding to the COVID-19 opportunity window, the essay shows that accelerated sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring were enabled not by mature dynamic capabilities, but by four temporary substitutive mechanisms: latent routines that became relevant once conditions shifted, collaboration-enabled access to complementary capabilities, provisional coordination through role stretch, and ecosystem engagement that reinforced emerging practices. These mechanisms temporarily substituted for capability maturity and enabled reorientation at a scale and speed more commonly associated with established firms. The essay contributes to research on dynamic capabilities by highlighting capability readiness, rather than capability maturity, as a driver of opportunity induced accelerated reorientation. Viewed together, the three essays provide complementary insight into how entrepreneurs engage opportunities at distinct phases of a ventures life. Opportunity individuation reveals how emotional meaning-making anchors early attention and commitment even in the absence of entrepreneurial intent. Opportunity actualization demonstrates how imagination structures the ongoing work of constructing actionable pathways through recursive interpretive–action loops. Opportunity reorientation shows how ventures reshape those pathways when conditions shift and opportunity windows emerge, enabled by temporary substitutes for mature dynamic capabilities. The dissertation also offers several practical implications for entrepreneurs, incubators, and policymakers working in high-uncertainty settings. Emotional resonance can serve as a stabilizing force during prolonged uncertainty, helping founders sustain commitment before external validation arrives. Recognizing the form of imagination suited to the entry context can help entrepreneurs converge on viable pathways sooner. Finally, capability portfolios that include latent preparedness, relational capital, and ecosystem engagement can enable rapid reorientation when opportunity windows arise, even before dynamic capabilities have matured.

Pagination

xiv, 163p.

Copyright

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Document Type

Dissertation

DAC Chairperson

Jha, Srivardhini K

DAC Members

Krishnan, Rishikesha T; Murthy, Ramya K; Jain, Sanjay

Type of Degree

Ph.D.

Relation

DIS-IIMB-FPM-P26-10

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS